AP US History: American & National Identity 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Manifest Destiny in the 1840s reflected a belief that the United States was
- Divinely ordained to expand across the continent (Correct answer)
- Obligated to free all enslaved people immediately
- Destined to remain a small agrarian republic
- Required to avoid all territorial growth
Correct answer: Divinely ordained to expand across the continent
Manifest Destiny held that Americans were fated by God to spread across North America.
Question 2: The 14th Amendment fundamentally redefined national identity by
- Granting citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. (Correct answer)
- Abolishing slavery throughout the nation
- Giving women the right to vote
- Limiting immigration from Asia
Correct answer: Granting citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S.
The 14th Amendment established birthright citizenship and equal protection under the law.
Question 3: Frederick Jackson Turner's 'Frontier Thesis' argued that American identity was shaped primarily by
- The experience of westward expansion and the frontier (Correct answer)
- European immigration patterns
- Industrial factory labor
- Religious revival movements
Correct answer: The experience of westward expansion and the frontier
Turner claimed the frontier experience forged American democracy and individualism.
Question 4: The idea of the 'melting pot,' popularized in the early 1900s, suggested that immigrants would
- Blend together to form a unified American culture (Correct answer)
- Maintain entirely separate ethnic enclaves
- Be excluded from citizenship permanently
- Return to their home countries after working
Correct answer: Blend together to form a unified American culture
The melting pot metaphor envisioned diverse immigrants fusing into a single American identity.
Question 5: The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 expanded debate over American identity by demanding
- Equal rights and suffrage for women (Correct answer)
- Immediate abolition of all property
- An end to westward expansion
- Restrictions on immigration
Correct answer: Equal rights and suffrage for women
Seneca Falls produced the Declaration of Sentiments, demanding women's rights including suffrage.
Question 6: The Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) decision affected national identity by ruling that
- African Americans could not be citizens (Correct answer)
- States could secede from the Union
- Slavery was unconstitutional
- Women could vote in territories
Correct answer: African Americans could not be citizens
The Supreme Court ruled that enslaved and free Black people were not and could not be U.S. citizens.
Question 7: Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address reframed the nation's founding ideal around
- The principle that all men are created equal (Correct answer)
- The protection of states' rights
- The expansion of federal taxation
- The preservation of the slave economy
Correct answer: The principle that all men are created equal
Lincoln invoked the Declaration's equality principle to redefine the meaning of the Union and the war.
AP US History: American & National Identity 3
Manifest Destiny in the 1840s reflected a belief that the United States was